Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc won U.S.
approval for its oil-spill response plan in the Chukchi Sea,
bringing the company closer to drilling off the north coast of
Alaska after a five years of preparation.

Shell must obtain drilling permits from the Interior
Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to
start work as early as July. The company also needs U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service
permission for “incidental” disruption of polar bears, walrus,
whales and seals.

Shell, which has spent about $4 billion on leases, seismic
studies and research of Arctic mammals since acquiring access to
the Beaufort Sea in 2005, is seeking to drill as many as five
wells this year in a region with an estimated 26.6 billion
barrels of oil. The exploration plans for both Chukchi and
Beaufort seas were approved last year.

“Approval of our Chukchi Sea oil-spill response plan is
another major milestone on the path to drilling in the Alaska
offshore this summer,” Pete Slaiby, Shell’s Alaska exploration
manager, said in an e-mail. “We will continue to work with
regulators and the Department of Interior to achieve the final
permits needed to begin drilling in July.”

Environmental Opposition

Exploration by Shell in the region was delayed after
environmentalists and Eskimos filed lawsuits to block permits,
and by the administration of President Barack Obama after BP
Plc’s Gulf of Mexico spill in April 2010.

Environmental groups including the New York-based Natural
Resources Defense Council oppose the drilling, saying more
research is needed to identify areas that need to be protected,
such as habitats for bowhead whales. The NRDC, Sierra Club and
residents in Point Hope, a North Slope village close to the
drilling sites, sued to challenge a lease sale that gave Shell
access to the Arctic waters.

“Drilling is a dirty and dangerous business and is a
threat to the fragile environment of America’s Arctic Ocean,”
Cindy Shogan, the executive director of the Washington-based
Alaska Wilderness League, said today in an e-mailed statement.
“President Obama has the ability to stop the next oil spill
disaster before it happens by not granting Shell’s final
drilling permits.”